


losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control

by lightningb0nes



Series: corruption au [1]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Breath of the Wild Spoilers, Corruption, Malice - Freeform, Multi, everybody is alive but they've been corrupted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-18
Updated: 2017-05-18
Packaged: 2018-11-02 03:38:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10936206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningb0nes/pseuds/lightningb0nes
Summary: In which the Champions do not die, but they are still lost.[or, the one where the malice doesn't just get the divine beasts, it gets their champions, too.]





	losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control

It begins, as so many things in Mipha’s life seem to, with the Princess. She returns from the mountain, and Mipha can already see the heartbreak on Zelda’s face, even before Daruk asks. 

“Well?” Daruk asks, concern mingling with hope on his face. “Don’t keep us in suspense! How’d everything go up there on the mountain?” All of the Champions still hold hope in their eyes as they watch on, Urbosa leaning to put a comforting hand on Zelda’s shoulder. 

The princess takes a deep breath, and shakes her head. Everyone seems to deflate slightly, disappointment weighing on all of their shoulders. Even Urbosa’s words of encouragement can’t quite bring the princess to smile, and before she can stop herself, Mipha steps forwards. 

“If I may,” she begins quietly, and Zelda looks up at her with sad blue eyes. “I thought you… well, I’m not sure how to put this into words- I’m actually quite embarrassed to say it,” she continues, and it’s a confession that’s welling in the Zora princess’ throat, a declaration of her feelings that she can’t seem to quell. “But I was thinking about what I do when I’m healing, you know, what usually goes through my mind,” she says, and she wants to scream  _ it’s you _ ,  _ it will always be you _ , to hold Zelda until she’s no longer so heartbroken, and she continues, “But it helps when I think- when I think about-” and the word  _ you  _ is on the tip of her tongue when the end begins. 

The ground shakes beneath her feet, and Revali flies up to confirm it- the Calamity Ganon is upon them, and one last fleeting look at Zelda is all Mipha gets before she must go. 

Upon reaching her home, she readies herself with the Lightscale Trident and presses a quick kiss to Sidon’s forehead, praying to Hylia that above all, he remains safe- he’s still a child, can barely lift a spear, and before she goes, she takes off the blue scarf- what marks her as a champion- and wraps it around his shoulders. 

“Always be brave, little brother,” she whispers, and then she’s rushing away again. 

Vah Ruta moves under Mipha’s touch like she always has at first, and she’s making her way to where she’ll be able to fight when it happens. A spark flickers across the control panel, multiplying and burrowing into the stone, turning it the same dangerous red she saw on the Calamity. She pulls back, reaching for her trident, but her bracer catches on the stone, and the sparks leap to her skin. 

They  _ burn _ , and she tries her hardest to bat them away, but they worm under her skin and her vision goes hazy and red, malice creeping through her veins and pulling at her mind.  **_ragemalicekillhate_ ** rips through her body, twisting and contorting her into something unrecognizable. She can feel the others, and what’s left of Mipha underneath the  **_malicekillragehateb̖̣u̮̜̙ͯr͕̍ͮ̾́ͨn̊_ ** clings to the rest of the champions, clear blue in a sea of red. 

When the rain of Vah Ruta begins, all who try to calm the beast see the scourge, the black and red hulking offspring of  **_burnragehatekillmalice_ ** that haunts the divine beast, and they see the choker around it’s throat, the remains of a shark-fin head. 

They call her the the Waterblight Mipha, Scourge of Vah Ruta, and they _ fear  _ her. 

**oOo**

When Mipha falls to the Malice, Urbosa can feel it in the back of her mind, like a static shock that runs down her spine. She yanks her hands away from Vah Naboris’ control panel, watching as the sparks congeal and shift, trying to reach towards her. She is what stands between her people and the Calamity Ganon, and she  _ will not  _ fail them. 

Her helm is with her daughter, Oteka, who she left with a promise of safety, and her Champion’s scarf is with her wife, Imami, who she left with an embrace and a fierce smile. 

“You come back to me, Urbosa,” Imami had said, hand clenched tight around her wife’s arm, and Urbosa had smiled, kissing her softly. 

“Don’t I always?” Urbosa had replied, and that is what she thinks of as she draws the Scimitar of Seven and Daybreaker, a snarl forming on her face. She thinks of her wife, her daughter, her people, and she steps into a fighting stance, facing the form of the malice.

“Come and get me,” she snarls, and it charges. 

She fights until she can’t fight any longer, Daybreaker and her scimitar falling from her hands as the  **_killragehate_ ** infects her. She can hear Mipha screaming, fighting and cursing through the fog, and what’s left of Urbosa reaches out and they cling to each other with all they’ve got as the storm begins around Vah Naboris. Lightning crackles under her fingertips, her body shifting and twisting until it’s moving like her lightning does, too fast to even see. 

**_ha̳̬̦ͭ̋͒ͦẗ͔͓̦̣̹̝̥e̱̙̥killmaliceang̍͌͏̹e͐͑̓̆ͤ͡r̸̯̭̂_ ** pulses through her as she lays siege to the desert, lightning striking all who dare come near as she rages. Urbosa, from underneath all of the  **_ragepainhate_ ** , sees the approach of Imami, armed with the Thunder Helm, and she  _ screams  _ for her wife to run, to leave, tearing at the Malice around her. 

When Imami returns to Gerudo Town, she tells tale of Vah Naboris’ rage, and she tells her people of the scourge that howls inside of the Divine Beast. She takes the seat of the Chieftess with a stony face, Thunder Helm in her hands, and she tells her people that any who can kill the beast will be rewarded greatly. She warns of the scourge, with it’s green and gold armor, with it’s broken Chieftess circlet, with the remains of Daybreaker strapped to it’s arm. 

They call her Thunderblight Urbosa, and they pray for her peace. 

**oOo**

Daruk doesn’t believe in ‘lost causes’, so even after Mipha and Urbosa fall, he continues up the mountain. He leaves his daughter, Konili, with his scarf and the chain that holds the Goron symbol, and even though he feels bare without them, he holds his head and Boulder Breaker high as he approaches the Divine Beast. 

He’s never been the best at piloting, but he boards Vah Rudania with ease, and he does not hesitate to slam Boulder Breaker into the Malice with everything he has. Even after the infection starts creeping through his veins, he slams his sword into the Malice, Rudania’s control panel, anything he can do to stop the beast. 

_ SLAM _ . A hit for his daughter. 

_ CRACK _ . A hit for his husband, at rest with the goddess.

_ POUND _ . A slower hit, but still powerful, for the princess. 

_ CRASH _ . A final hit, sluggish as his body surrenders to the corruption, for the Champion. 

“Go get him, little guy,” is the last thing he manages to say as himself. 

As the  **_ragekillangerpain_ ** takes over, the part of him that is still Daruk welcomes what remains of Mipha and Urbosa into his arms, holding them close at the back of his mind as his body contorts and shifts into the  _ thing  _ that shakes Vah Rudania, that shakes Death Mountain, to it’s core. It’s  **_malicemalicem̨ͪa͏l̍̏iͩ̏cͩë́̈_ ** that erupts Death Mountain, that wreaks havocs on the mines his people are so proud of, that endangers his family. His mind is being pulled apart, aching as he sees his daughter retreat into the depths of Goron City, fear deep in her eyes. 

When no one comes to look for him on Bludo’s orders, he understands. 

They call him Fireblight Daruk, and while they do not forget him, they never quite forgive his failure, either.

**oOo**

It ends with Revali. He was the first to see the Calamity Ganon, and he was the last to succumb to the Malice. He gives Link a hard look before they part, a million unsaid things on his end, but all he can bring himself to say is “Goodluck,  _ hero _ . Here’s hoping you won’t need it,” before launching himself into the air. His heart aches with everything he hasn’t said, but he doesn’t have time to mourn what could have been- Revali has a job to do, and he has no intention of failing. 

Vah Medoh is waiting for him, but by the time he gets there, it’s already too late- He can hear Mipha’s screaming, Urbosa’s howling, Daruk’s cursing, he can feel them pulling and twisting and begging him to stay back as he approaches Vah Medoh. 

The Malice is waiting for him, curled around the control panel of  _ his  _ Divine Beast, and it’s infuriating- first he’s reduced to a supporting fighter, then this  _ thing  _ tries to take over his Beast? It’s insulting. He draws the Great Eagle Bow and looses a volley of bomb arrows, and he grins when the beast  _ screeches _ in pain. 

He doesn’t see the black and red sparks on his wings until it’s too late. 

**_hateragekillburn_ ** crawls up his throat, choking him, and he falls to his knees as his body convulses, his Gale turning to hurricane winds around him as the Malice pulls him apart at the seams and stitches him back together again. The other Champions pull what’s left of him towards them, and they form a symphony of pain as they watch what used to be Revali, their final line of defense, turn Vah Medoh on the Rito. Revali can feel nothing but  **_hatemali͠c̨e̡̊killrage_ ** as he watches the hero fall, watches the Princess rise up in a flash of light so pure it stops them all in their tracks. 

When Revali slips away, so do the rest of them- there is nothing but a glimmer of the Champions left, underneath the  **_ragepainhatekill_ ** of the Malice.

Even after the Divine Beasts and their scourges slip into slumber, the Rito people pass warnings of the scourge down to their children- of the blue scarf still worn around it’s neck, of the feathers it sports and the braids you can see if you’re brave enough to get close. 

The Rito call him Windblight Revali, and they call themselves thankful that his beginning marked the apparent end of the Divine Beast’s terrors- Vah Ruta’s rain stopped, the sandstorm of Vah Naboris settled, Vah Rudania’s tormenting of Death Mountain ended.

**oOo**

A month before the day that marks the hundredth anniversary of the loss of the Champions, Vah Ruta rises with a shudder, and the rains begin to plague the Zora people once more. The Waterblight rages around the inside of the beast, sending waves towards any who dare approach, and Mipha’s sorrow sings out through the malice as she watches her brother try again and again to get close enough to do something. 

A week later, Vah Naboris rises again, sand pouring off the beast and lightning beginning to crackle around it once more, making the desert unreachable for the Gerudo. Thunderblight howls inside the beast, a noise that echoes throughout the desert, and lightning rains down on all who come too close. Urbosa’s rage thunders out as she sees the theft of her helm from a girl no older than fourteen, and her pride is even stronger as she watches her descendant plan to take it back. 

It’s two weeks to the anniversary when Vah Rudania shakes itself to life once more, raining fire on Death Mountain and ruining the mines of the Gorons. The Fireblight pounds and shakes the Divine Beast from side to side, so powerful that it shakes the mountain itself, but Daruk’s joy cannot be quelled when he sees his grandson alive and well, his scarf secured around his neck and his protection at the boy’s disposal. 

It’s a week away from being one hundred years since the Calamity struck, and Vah Medoh rears it’s head, never attacking, but striking fear into the Rito once more, keeping them landlocked until they are far enough away from the beast to dare try flying. Windblight howls like a poorly-contained hurricane inside of the Divine Beast, and Revali, even after almost one hundred years, stays lost in the rage. A warrior in the Rito Village strings his bow and takes to the skies. 

On the hundredth anniversary of the Calamity, a pool drains inside of the Shrine of Resurrection, revealing the Hero’s body, finally healed and stripped of his memories. 

_ Open your eyes,  _ a voice urges the Hero, quiet.  _ Open your eyes,  _ the voice tries again,  _ open your eyes!  
_

_ Wake up, Link, _ the voice pleads, and, one hundred years after the strike of the calamity, the Hero opens his eyes. 

**Author's Note:**

> hi!!!! thank you so much for reading!! i love you  
> this au is the lovechild of no sleep and completing the memory quest in botw, plus my unending need to make myself overly sad about video game characters
> 
> it's a personal hc of mine that daruk and urbosa had families, bc yunobo and riju are direct descendants of them, hence the mentions of that in the fic
> 
> if you wanna come yell ~~at~~ with me about video games, you can find me on tumblr  
> [@lightningb0nes](http://lightningb0nes.tumblr.com)  
>  , and this fic was beta'd by the incomparable [@pinwhale](http://pinwhale.tumblr.com)


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